


Hope My Voice Reaches You Someday

by Mirai_Kako



Category: Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Basically a re-telling of the main plot, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hop is deaf, Hop is mute for most of the story, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Marnie is supportive bestie to Hop, Slow Burn, Victor is kinda overprotective of Hop, slight angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:28:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25216243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mirai_Kako/pseuds/Mirai_Kako
Summary: “Hey! My name’s Victor. You’re Hop right?” The brunet asked the shorter boy. The other boy’s widened golden eyes then showed confusion as he started doing hand signs in shaky, rapid succession, as if trying to respond to Victor. Suddenly he stopped as his eyes flashed a hint of realization before he turned around and opened his green duffel bag that was sitting next to him. Victor leaned a bit to the side out of curiosity and saw the boy pull out a notebook and a pencil, preceding to open to a random page and write something down. After a minute or two of awkward silence, the boy finally turned the notebook towards Victor. Victor leaned down a bit and started to read it.“Hi! I’m sorry, I forgot that not everyone knows sign language. As a deaf person, it’s extremely hard for me to communicate to others. I’ve only really talked (sign language) to my mom and my teacher, so I get really nervous trying to talk to others. You must be Victor, the son to one of my mom’s friends I’m guessing. If you are, nice to meet you! I’m Hop!”
Relationships: Hop/Masaru | Victor
Comments: 4
Kudos: 65





	1. Near Silent Meeting

“Victor!” 

Victor was at the moment focused on playing on his switch over in his room when his mom suddenly called for him. Pausing the game and getting up, Victor runs out of his room and sees his mom near the front door, hand on the door handle. “You going somewhere, Mom?” Victor asked and his mom nodded. “Was gonna go check up on a friend, you know, the one that lives near us. If you want, you can come with me.” Victor thought for a moment, before answering back. “Sure, I’ll come. Let me just get changed real quick. I’ll be out asap.”

“Okay, I’ll be waiting outside then.” Victor’s mom responded before opening the door and stepping outside. Victor immediately went back into his room to change, hearing the front door close softly behind him. Rummaging through his wardrobe, Victor decided on a simple red v-neck shirt with a collar along with just some plain dark jeans. Quickly putting them on along with white socks and black sneakers, he turned off the lights to his room and rushed outside when he was done. Finding his mom waiting outside just like she said so and closing the door behind him, Victor jogged up to where his mom was standing and slowed to a halt once near. 

“Ready to go?” His mom asked and he nodded in response before they started making their way down the light grounded path. Their destination wasn’t far at all, just a minute or so walk from their own house. Victor could spot the house they were going to before they had even taken ten steps away from where they initially stood. It was a two-story house, made up of light brown bricks and the rooftop was that of a rose color to Victor. The sides of the house, from what Victor could see, was littered with windows. 

Victor had occasionally talked to his mom's friend before whenever the other had come over, such as when his mom first introduced him to her. From the times he’s seen her, his mom’s friend had dark purple hair and relaxed golden eyes. She had also seemed to wear a variety of yellow shirts whenever she came to visit, occasionally wearing an orange one. ‘I guess her favorite color is yellow.’ Victor huffed out a small laugh, catching the attention of his mom.

“That’s right, you never met her son before have you?” Victor’s mom brought up, trying to create at least some kind of small talk with her son. Victor looked up at her gawkingly before finally saying, “Wait, she has a son?” Victor’s mom bursted out giggling at her son’s shocked expression. “She has two actually! Leon, the undefeatable champion, and another named Hop who lives with her right now. She loves to talk about the two whenever she comes over and I actually met Hop a few times when I went over to her house.”

‘Oh, that’s why I never knew.’ Victor thought as his expression deadpanned as he was one to not listen to the conversations his mom had with others. Now that he thought of it more, he now can see how similar Leon did look to his mom’s friend. He didn’t watch much pokemon battles, but he did occasionally watch some of Leon’s battles and an image of Leon appeared in his head as he started to draw similarities. Same skin, eye and hair color, though Leon’s hair color was a slightly lighter purple compared to his mom’s, it was pretty obvious the more Victor thought about it and the more he thought, the more stupid he felt. This did make him curious as to what Hop would look like though. 

Victor’s mother tapped him on the shoulder which snapped him out of his thoughts and he glanced towards her. “I was told Hop isn’t home right now, so if you want you can go out and see if you can find him. Just be gentle with him, he’s-” Before she could finish, a cheerful voice called out to both of them, directing their attention towards the person who made the noise. Surely enough, it was Hop’s mom who had caused the small commotion, walking up to the two. 

“I’m so glad you’re here! I actually need some help setting up the grill for a barbeque later on tonight. I’d be happy if you’d help me out a bit.” Hop’s mother requested. Victor thought that she was referring to the both of them and was about to grumble about it, but was cut off from doing so by his mother. “You don’t have to help if you don’t want to. Like I said, you can go out and see if you can find Hop in the meanwhile. Just be back before sunset, okay?” Victor’s mom offered. “Oh, okay.” Victor replied, slight excitement in his voice as he stepped back a bit and back onto the path.

Victor’s mom looked like she was about to say something else, but Hop’s mom grabbed her arm and started dragging her away from Victor. All she could do was flash a smile and wave awkwardly towards Victor as she was being dragged off, which he responded with his own awkward wave. Once the two moms were inside the house, Victor started jogging down the path, slowly stopping to a halt once he reached a blue sign. A zero and one was written in white and Victor glanced across the scenery as a whole. He’s seen it multiple times on his way from the small town in Postwick and back, but nevertheless Victor still loved looking at the scenery. 

Though this time, something else caught his eye. Down the route, he noticed someone sitting on the rock fencing off to the left of the path, facing away from said path. Victor squinted his eyes and peered at the figure, trying to make out their appearance. From what he could see, the figure wore a blue fur-rimmed jacket and black pants, a green duffel sitting next to him. The two features that interested Victor the most though was his dark skin and his purple hair, seemingly shaped to look like a purple tulip, at least to Victor.

‘That must be Hop.’ Victor thought to himself making his way towards the boy. Once he was just a few steps away from the boy who actually looked shorter than him, that’s when Victor decided to try getting the other’s attention. “Hey!” Victor called out to the other, but got no response in return. He was sure the boy would have heard him, especially since they were this close to each other; so once he was standing right next to the other, he tapped on boy’s shoulder. This made the boy jolt and turn towards the one who had tapped him on the shoulder. Victor was met with large golden eyes, widened in surprise and it looked like the boy was about to break into a cold sweat. 

“Hey! My name’s Victor. You’re Hop right?” The brunet asked the shorter boy. The other boy’s widened golden eyes then showed confusion as he started doing hand signs in shaky, rapid succession, as if trying to respond to Victor. Suddenly he stopped as his eyes flashed a hint of realization before he turned around and opened his green duffel bag that was sitting next to him. Victor leaned a bit to the side out of curiosity and saw the boy pull out a notebook and a pencil, preceding to open to a random page and write something down. After a minute or two of awkward silence, the boy finally turned the notebook towards Victor. Victor leaned down a bit and started to read it.

_“Hi! I’m sorry, I forgot that not everyone knows sign language. As a deaf person, it’s extremely hard for me to communicate to others. I’ve only really talked (sign language) to my mom and my teacher, so I get really nervous trying to talk to others. You must be Victor, the son to one of my mom’s friends I’m guessing. If you are, nice to meet you! I’m Hop!”_

‘So I was right.’ Victor thought to himself. He was about to reply back verbally, but saw that the pencil Hop used was pointed towards him. Mad at himself for already forgetting, he gently took the pencil and notebook from Hop’s hands. Taking a seat on the rock fencing, but facing the opposite direction from Hop, he began to write just below Hop’s written paragraph. As Victor wrote, he could see Hop staring at him intently from the corner of his eye. He wanted to say something, but instead focused on his writing remembering that talking doesn’t work. Another minute went by before Victor gave the notebook and pencil back to Hop. Hop proceeded to eagerly read what he wrote.

_“Nice to meet you, Hop! Yes, I am Victor. Not the best at introductions, guess all I really have to say is that I’m just your average 15 year old living in Postwick. I don’t own any pokemon yet but for starters, I would really like to get a Scorbunny someday. How about you?”_

Hop gleamed at the response and started writing his own to it. Victor looked up to the sky, watching the clouds pass by as he lightly kicked his legs back and forth. It was nearly dead silent besides the noises of wooloos and the rustling of trees in the distance along with the sound of light scratching as Hop wrote in the notebook. He could drift asleep right now if it wasn’t for Hop tapping on his shoulder, catching on his attention. 

Victor looked over to Hop and instead of seeing Hop’s golden eyes, he instead saw the notebook page that they have been writing on. Hop brought the notebook down and shot a grin towards Victor before handing the notebook and pencil to him. As he took hold of the notebook and pencil, Victor couldn’t help but feel his heart flutter a bit. He looked away a little flushed and instead averted his gaze to the notebook page.

_“Same I’m not good at introductions at all, well if my deafness makes that obvious enough hah. We’re actually the same age! Also, I have my own pokemon as well! A wooloo in fact. They may not seem to be much, but my wooloo has been with me for as long as I can remember. They’re honestly the first friend I’ve ever had…”_

Victor glanced over to Hop and Hop looked back, a bit of sadness shown in his eyes. Suddenly, it turned to joy as Hop took hold of Victor’s left hand with his own left hand, causing the other to jolt slightly in surprise, his cheeks showed a tint of pink. “H-huh..?! Hop-” Victor was cut off when he saw Hop point a finger at him with his right hand. He then kept his hand in a pointing position, but then directed the finger to himself. Then, letting go of Victor's hand, Hop grasps his two hands together, like how two people would do so when they held hands. 

Hop was looking down at his hands when he did that last motion but then he looked back up to Victor with gleaming eyes. Victor on the other hand showed a look of confusion and his first instinct was to talk but instead he grabbed the notebook and pencil that was sitting on his lap and quickly wrote down three question marks. He then faced the notebook towards Hop, that look of confusion still on his face. Hop had a slight smile on his face, but just from his eyes, Victor could tell in Hop’s mind, he was like, ‘Oh yeah...’

Hop took hold of the notebook and pencil so suddenly that Victor released them near immediately. The brunet then saw Hop start writing something quickly and suddenly the notebook was back in his lap. Victor glanced towards Hop, but the other was looking away covering his face in his hands. Victor raised an eyebrow a bit before looking down at the notebook to read what Hop wrote. It was slightly messier than the rest of his writing, but it was still readable.

_“I’m sorry! I guess what I was trying to say was- well-_

_Do you think we can be friends?”_


	2. A Phrase For You

Victor looked down at what he just read, then back at Hop, then back to the notebook multiple times. He couldn’t help but blush a little and even though Hop’s back was pointed towards him, he could still sense Hop’s flustered emotions and it was oddly cute to Victor. ‘Oh my arceus Victor… Stop jumping to such conclusions like that!’ Victor mentally slapped himself for thinking that way about someone he pretty much just met. Taking a deep breath, Victor quickly writes something down onto the notebook page and after finishing he glances back to Hop, who was still in the same position as before.

Victor laid a soft hand on Hop’s shoulder, making the boy jump in surprise and turn to face Victor, eyes filled with curious hope. Victor handed the notebook and pencil to Hop, who was hesitant at first, but in the end grabbed both the items softly. Victor wanted to look away but instead kept his eyes on Hop to see what his reaction would be like. Looking down at the bottom of the page, Hop read what was written.

_“Of course we can be friends <3”_

Victor watched as Hop’s mouth widened into a big smile, his eyes gleaming like sparkling water. Hop turned to face Victor and Victor couldn’t help but feel like Hop’s mere presence at that moment was as bright as the sun itself. Suddenly he felt Hop’s arms wrap around him in a tight embrace and while caught off guard at first, he then laughed it off and hugged Hop back. After a minute or two, they finally pulled away from each, Hop’s smile still shining brightly as he balled his hands into two fists and shaking them up and down in excitement. 

Victor breathed out another laugh until realization suddenly hit him. Looking up at the sky and towards the sun, shielding his eyes a bit from its brightness, he noticed how the sun was starting to fall behind the horizon. Victor’s mouth gaped open a little and as he was about to get off the rock fencing, he noticed Hop tilting his head in confusion, both forearms laying on top of his notebook that was laying on his lap. Victor didn’t want to just snatch the notebook all of a sudden from Hop, so instead he tried doing something else.

He pointed towards Hop and then back at himself, just as Hop had done early, but instead of grasping his two hands together, Victor instead balled his right hand into a fist. He stuck his thumb out from the fist and made it point back up the path of route one; back to Hop’s house. The other boy leaned back a bit on the rock fencing, looking at what Victor was pointing at. Suddenly Hop's eyes widened a bit and he shook his head up and down before putting away his notebook and pencil. 

Victor got off from rock fencing and Hop swung both of his legs over said fencing. Keeping a hold of the strap of his green duffel bag, he jumped off the rock fencing and upon reaching the ground, he swung the green duffel bag over his shoulder so he didn’t drag it against the floor. Looking up at Victor, Hop flashed a gentle smile at him before nodding, which Victor returned with his own. They could smell the gentle aroma of barbeque in the distance as the two made their way back to Hop’s house. 

Their hands this close to touching.

\----------

_“Have you ever tried speaking before?”_

The question seemingly came out of nowhere to Hop that he was caught off guard. He scratched the back of his head and glanced away from Victor, clear that he was nervous about answering that question. Victor panicked a bit, waving his hands to follow up what he asked.

_“It’s okay! You don’t have to answer that if you don’t want to.”_

Over the past few months, Hop and Victor had seemingly become inseparable. Victor would often go out to hang out with Hop whenever he can and the same went with Hop. They spent most of their time at the same spot they had first met at, at first talking about their likes, dislikes and overall trying to get to know each other more. Weeks later, they were geeking about the things they shared interests in, which was more than expected. Hop was even able to get Victor more into pokemon battles and whenever they went to Hop’s house, they would go to his room to see if there were any pokemon battles on TV. If not, they’d just play a video game together. 

Hop even began teaching Victor sign language so they didn’t have to communicate through the notebook all the time. As much as Hop thinks of himself as a bad teacher, Victor was able to follow along nicely and while shaky at first, he was able to start doing it more fluently as he decided to start practicing on his own time as well. Occasionally Victor would go to Hop’s house when Hop’s teacher was there so he could learn along with Hop and this greatly strengthened their bond. 

Hop looked back at Victor a bit flushed and took his hand away from the back of his head. Shaking his head as a first response to what Victor said. Victor was confused at first until he saw Hop begin to move his hands to properly respond back to him.

_“It’s fine. I never really tried talking while around my mom, but I have been practicing my pronunciation a lot lately with my teacher. That’s why sometimes I ask if you don’t join me and my teacher for some lessons. I guess to put it short, I’m embarrassed of my voice…”_

Hop cupped his hands and covered his mouth while looking away. He had a smile on his face, but his eyebrows were uprooted in what Victor could tell was in embarrassment. Victor let out a small giggle and brought up his hand, gently placing it on both of Hop’s cupped hands and pushing down lightly so that Hop could lower his hands. This made Hop look towards Victor, eyes widened and smile now shaken as a large blush came across his face. Victor gave Hop a bright but gentle smile in return before he started responding to what Hop had said before.

_"That’s totally okay though! You’re still learning and that’s okay! The fact that you’re trying and putting in the effort even though you can’t hear is amazing already. You truly are incredible, Hop.”_

The blush on Hop’s face grew even more and if he could, he would have brought up his hands to cover his whole face. Instead, they were clasped down by Victor’s as the taller boy looked down at Hop with passion in his eyes. This made Hop lean back a bit and free his hands from Victor’s, shaking them along with his head back and forth rapidly. He then signed his response just as rapidly as his heart beat. 

“I- I’m not all that! I just really wanted to practice so that I can maybe speak out sometimes… I only know how to say two very short phrases anyways, so… I guess I can say at least one of them to you if you want-”

Before Hop could finish, Victor was once again clasping his hands on Hop’s. Hop jolted a bit and looked flusteredly up at Victor, who looked back brightly as he shook his head up and down. A slight blush then washed over Victor’s face as he noticed how close he was to Hop, practically feeling Hop’s warm breath. This time Victor was the one to pull back and shove his hands onto his lap, glancing away and then back at Hop multiple times nervously. Hop couldn’t help but silently giggle at Victor being the flustered one of the two this time. 

He stood up straighter, catching the attention of Victor, who stopped looking away and kept his focus onto Hop. Hop could feel himself internally sweating but continued what he was planning, letting out a heavy sigh, the closest Victor has heard of a voice from Hop. “H-Hie… ‘M Hop...pu…” Hop looked away with his eyebrows furrowed, hands fidgeting a lot. In the meanwhile, Victor’s eyes widened a bit, jaw gaping a little as well. Hop’s voice was soft yet extremely wavering, filled with uncertainty of if it’s pronunciation was right. Victor couldn’t help but shudder a bit when he let Hop’s voice sink into his brain, as if being touched by an angel. 

He wanted to pull Hop into a hug and cry a little into his shoulder over finally hearing Hop’s voice, but Victor restrained himself from doing so. Instead he leaned a bit to the side and shook his hand in Hop’s general direction to get his attention. Hop perked his head up and even though he was still embarrassed, he tried to keep eye contact with Victor. The other gave a reassuring smile before he finally signed his thoughts.

_“Hop I… I honestly think your voice sounds beautiful and your pronunciation sounds good to me so far! The little ‘pu’ at the end was honestly really cute too. Is it… Is it okay to nickname you ‘Hoppu’?”_

Victor couldn’t stop himself from signing the last two sentences before he had signed them and the damage had been done. Hop clutched his shirt, just over the area where his heart would be, with one hand and the other gripping the rock fencing they were sitting on. Realization shot through Victor’s brain and he signed over and over that he was sorry. He also signed that Hop didn’t have to answer that question. Suddenly Victor was stopped by Hop bringing up a hand, signing for him to halt, which he did. 

_“The nickname actually came from my mom who then had told my teacher about it. So as of late, they both have been calling me by that and it’s not that I hate it or anything it’s just… For some reason I feel more flustered by you calling by that nickname than my mom or my teacher calling me that. I… If you really want to, I don’t mind you calling me Hoppu…”_

Hop tried to put on a smile despite feeling extremely flustered, a slight giggle escaping him. Victor felt something shoot through his chest when he saw Hop’s expression, but said nothing of it and just smiled back, cheeks of a light rose color. Suddenly something crossed his mind and signed another question towards Hop. 

_"Oh yeah, what’s the second phrase that you can do? You mentioned earlier you can do two phrases so-”_

Victor was stopped by Hop grabbing both of his hands by the fingers and Hop pressed them lightly against his own face, just above his eyes. This made Victor jolt in surprise as he noticed Hop hiding his expression behind both his own and Victor’s hands. “Hop-!” Victor vocally said even though he knew Hop couldn’t hear him. He felt his hands shift and saw Hop slowly let go of Victor’s hands with his right, keeping the left grasping both of the other’s hands. Then Hop tried his best to sign something with his right hand only.

_“Too...Embarrassing...Maybe…-nother...time”_

Victor couldn’t help but laugh a bit, pulling away his hands so he can not only respond but also see Hop’s face. Hop tried to hold back his disappointment when he felt Victor leave his small embrace. He didn’t want to show it, but he felt a small warmth when he felt Victor’s fingers touching his face. Hop’s mouth thinned as he felt his face heat up and he refused to make eye contact with Victor and instead kept looking at the hands that had left his grasp, seeing them sign a response.

_“Then another time, okay?”_

Hop just slowly shook his head up and down and got up from the rock fencing. Victor was confused until he noticed how it was slowly starting to get more dark and dark by the second. He got up from the rock fencing and a sudden thought crossed his mind. Victor smiled slightly as he tapped Hop’s shoulder to get his attention. Hop glanced over and saw Victor ask something. 

_“How about a small race back to your house?”_

_“Are you challenging me Vic?”_

_“...Maybe-”_

Hop giggled from that response and before he could let Victor sign another thing, he was already rushing down the path, leaving Victor in his dust.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry this took over a month to update, I had this chapter and even Chapter 3 all written out but I procrastinated hard on editing through this chapter because I worry that no matter how many times I reread it there's always gonna be a mistake lol  
> Anyways will hopefully get Chapter 3 out sometime soon and NOT a whole month or more later lol

**Author's Note:**

> Been coming up with so many story ideas lately, mainly of Masahop, so imma try my best to post and update them whenever I get the chance to because I honestly do enjoy writing these and seeing people enjoy them even though I'm not all that confident in my writing makes me so happy haha


End file.
